Children’s Miracle Network of Eastern Maine Healthcare will benefit from the second Basketball Challenge game between Wal-Mart of Palmyra and youngsters at the Sebasticook Community Center.

The event begins with a concert at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 22, at the center, 81 North St. in Newport.

For one hour, the Dave Wooley Band will entertain the crowd and play the national anthem before the game. Then Wal-Mart associates, spouses and children will try to pick up a win from the center team “that really whooped us last year,” reports Wal-Mart Community Service coordinator Laurie Cray.

WABI-TV sports director Tim Throckmorton “has graciously agreed to be our referee,” she said, and store co-manager Paul Conklin will appear as the Wal-Mart mascot, Hotdog.

Admission is $3 for adults, $1 for students and free for children under the age of 4.

Members of the Pittsfield Volunteer Fire Department will “fill the boot,” and you can get some delicious food at the bake sale.

All the money raised benefits Children’s Miracle Network.

Cray said the event will be “lots of family fun for all ages,” and hopes you will attend to help the children of Maine.

Members of The River City Salon Orchestra will perform a benefit pops concert for displaced Eastern Fine Paper Co. employees at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, at the Brewer Auditorium.

Percussionist Cindy Brooks-Bastide said the program will include “classical favorites, jazz standards, ragtime, marches, tangos, waltzes and popular music standards of a bygone era.”

She promises the benefit concert will be fun for everyone.

Included in the program will be such classical favorites as “Hungarian Dance No. 5” and the “Skaters Waltz.”

You also will hear jazz standards including “Beale Street Blues” and the famous “St. Louis Blues,” along with popular songs from Broadway and Tin Pan Alley written by Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter and many more well-known composers.

Playing for the benefit of the Eastern Fine employees with Brooks-Bastide will be Ellie Shufro, Christine Fredenburg, Patricia Eames, Lori Wingo, Fred Heath, John Haskell and Jim Adams.

The suggested donation at the door is $5, but any additional amount you can contribute will certainly make a difference to those affected by the current shutdown of the Brewer mill.

Rape Response Services is offering a training session for volunteers to take shifts for hospital calls.

The qualifications for this volunteer opportunity include being a “good listener, and a helping person,” according to Joyce Perry, Rape Response Services Community Outreach coordinator.

The training begins Thursday, Feb. 26, and concludes Thursday, March 25. It will be conducted at the Rape Response Services Dover-Foxcroft location.

For more information or to request a volunteer training application, call that office at 564-8924 or e-mail rrscoc@raperesponseservices.com.

For 16 years, volunteers have been providing services to people living in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties who are affected by sexual assault.

Emily McIntosh of the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce reports spaces are still available for area educators to participate in its Building Bridges program, which meets from 3:15 to 6 p.m. each Tuesday, beginning Feb. 24, and concluding May 11, excluding school vacation weeks.

Attendees who pay a $35 fee receive three continuing education units, contingent upon appropriate attendance.

McIntosh explained that during the meetings “educators visit area businesses and learn about the demands of the work world in order to help their students prepare for choosing careers or entering the work force.”

The program is open to teachers, administrators, school board members, guidance counselors and any educator. Parents also are welcome.

For information or to register, call McIntosh at 947-0307; email brccevents@bangorregion.com or visit the Chamber office at 519 Main St.

On behalf of the Charles O. Howard Memorial Foundation, Dan Williams invites the public to attend a silent auction, dinner and talent show benefiting the foundation.

The event begins with the silent auction at 5:30 p.m. followed by dinner at 7 p.m. and the talent show at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28, at Jeff’s Catering in Brewer.

Tickets are available at Creative Flowers, 25 Hammond St. in Bangor.

For more information about the event or foundation, call 942-9319 or 299-0561.

Proceeds benefit the Charles O. Howard Foundation to help erect a monument in downtown Bangor honoring the young gay man who, because of his sexual orientation, drowned in 1984 after three juveniles threw him from a Bangor bridge.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.